Grinding mill



Jan. 9, 1934.

W. C. WOOD GRINDING MILL Filed Nov. 3, 1930 Ell E?.

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rjTlUen for ZU C woog Patented Jen. 9, 1934 Application November 3, 1930, Serial No. 493,054, Y

and in Canada June 10, 1930 7 Claims.

This invention relates to grinding mills of the type in which grain is ground between the serrated faces of stationary and rotating grinding plates, and my object is to provide a simple, compact machine of this type in which the plates may be iinely adjusted to and from one another and locked in their adjusted position, and in which the plates may be quickly released. Other objects are to so construct the mill unit that it may be used for purposes other than grinding, and that the feeding means will break rather than any of the other parts if a jam occurs, and that the feeding means controls the ilow of grain to the plates. l5 I attain my objects by means of the constructions hereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation, partly broken away and partly in section of my machine;

Fig. 2 a plan View of the right hand part of the machine; and

Fig. 3 a detail of the dog for locking the adjusting mechanism.

1 is a drive shaft which may be an extended end of the shaft of an electric motor 2. The shaft is journalled in a ball bearing V3 carried by a hub 4 which is carried by the end 5 of the motor casing. The hub or casing is provided with a circumferential flange 6 and the hub carries a dust cap 7 which engages the inner wall of the flange.

A grinding chamber 8 has a peripheral wall 9 slidably mounted on the ange 6 and a side wall l0 provided with a feed inlet opening 11. The feed outlet opening 12 is formed in the wall 9. To the inner side of the wall 10 is secured a non-rotating annular grinding plate 13 and to the outer side of this wall is secured a hopper 14 which communicates with the inlet 11. A rotating grinding plate 15, head 16 and blades 17 are also located within the chamber 8 and are driven by the shaft 1. l

The head 16 has a tapered bore which ts a correspondingly shaped portion of the shaft 1 and is l) held in driving engagement therewith by means of a nut 18 which is threaded on the end of the shaft. The grinding plate and the blades 17 are suitably secured to the head 16. A worm 19 threaded on the extreme end of the shaft thread ,zo behind the nut 18 is counterbored to clear the latter and engage the head 16. The worm is adapted to feed the grain and control its rate or" ilow from the hopper le through the inlet 11 to the space between the grinding plates, and the ground grain discharged around the inner pe- Nrrsn STATES PATENT oFFieE riphery of the grinding chamber isswept by the blades 17 into the discharge outlet 12.

Toregulate the distance between the plates 13 and 15 which determines the degree of neness of the ground grain, 1 provide means for adjusting the non-rotating plate 13 to and from the rotating plate l5.

On the flange 6 is threaded an adjusting nut 20 which engages therperipheral wall 9 of the grinding chamber 8 to limit the movement or the plate 13 towards the plate 15.

The engagement of the wall 9 andnut 20 is yieldingly maintained by means of springs 21 engaged with lugs 22 on the wall 9 and nuts 23 on studs 24 which pass through the lugs and are threaded s into the end 5 of the motor casing.

By turning the adjusting nut 20 in one direction of rotation le plate 13 will be moved away from the plate 15 and by turning the nut in the opposite direction of rotation the springs 21 will cause the plate 13 to be moved towards the plate 15.

position.

On the peripheralwall 9 of the chamber 8 is .Y rotatably mounted a collar 28, one side of which engages the nut 20 and the other side is provided with a cam face 29 adapted to co-operate witha corresponding cam face 9a on the wall 9. The

collar is provided with a handle 30 whereby it may be turned relative to the nut 20 rand wall 9 to cause the latter to be quickly moved along the flange 6 when it is desired to quickly separate the plates 13, 15.

The end of the shaft 1 remote from the head 16 is also extended and this end is provided with a pulley 31 whereby the motor 2 may be used for When it is desired to use the pulley 31, any grain in the hopper 14 may be prevented, by means of an arcuate shutter 32, from being fed by the worm 19 into the grinding chamber 8. The shutter is mounted in the bottom of the hopper concentric to the worm and is provided with a handle 33 whereby it may be turned through an arc of substantially 180 to shut olf the supply of grain to purposes other than grinding grain.

the worm.

lar flange 36 formed on the shutter.

This flange is adapted to permit the passage of the worm 19 therethrough so that any one of a number of different pitched worms may be used without dismantling more than the cap 34 of the machine.

To prevent damage to the internal parts of the grinding machine or motor if the grain contains hard foreign material such as stones or pieces of metal, I form a point of weakness in the worm so that it will break more readily than l0 anything else and thus stop the feed into the grinding chamber. The point of weakness may be formed by an annular groove 37 located adjacent the tapped end of the worm or by so making the threads of the worm that theyl will break off at their base if the pressure exceeds a predetermined maximum.

What I claim as my invention is:

l. A grinding mill including a shaft; a ilxed member having a flange extending axially of the shaft; a chamber having a peripheral Wall axially movable on the flange; a pair of grinding plates located Within the chamber, one of the plates being driven by the shaft and the other secured to a Wall of thechamber; means for adjusting the chamber on the flange to regulate the distance between the plates comprising a nut threaded on the ilange for engagement by the peripheral wall of the chamber; lugs on the chamber; studs carried by the fixed member and passed through the said lugs; springs disposed on the studs for engaging the lugs to tend to maintain the peripheral. Wall of the chamber against the nut; and a dog axially movable on one of the studs for engagement with the nut to lock it from turning in either direction.

l 2. A grinding mill including a motor having an extended shaft; a hub extending axially of the motor and provided with a ilange, the shaft being J'ournalled in the hub; a chamber having a pe- 40 ripheral Wall axially movable on the flange; a

J head located within the chamber and secured to the shaft; a pair of grinding plates located within the chamber, one of the plates being Secured to the head, and the other plate being secured to a wall of the chamber, the plate and wall having f coincident openings therethrough; a hopper canlied by the said wall and communicating with the said openings; and a worm secured to the shaft and extending through the said openings for feedingl grain from the hopper to the plates.

3. Agrinding mill comprising a shaft; a chamber disposed on the shaft; a pair of grinding plates located within the chamber, the plates and chamber having coincident openings therethrough; a hopper carried bythe chamber and communicating with the said'openings.; a Worm removably secured to the shaft for feeding grain from the hopper to the plates; a rotatable arcuate shutter mounted concentric to the worm for 6o closing the hopper, the shutter having an opening in axial alinement with the Worm for the. re-

moval of the latter from the shaft; a capadapted toclose the opening in the shutter and removably l secured to the latter; and a handle carried by the cap for turning the shutter.

Y 4:. A grinding mill including a shaft; a fixed member having a flange extending axially of the shaft; a chamber havinga peripheral wall axially movable on the flange; a pair of grinding plates vmember having a flange extending axially of the shaft; a chamber having a peripheral wall axially movable on the ilange; a pair of grinding plates located within the chamber, one of the plates being driven by the shaft and the other secured to a wall of the chamber for axial movement'therewith; adjustable means carried by the flange for limiting the axial movement of the chamber on the flange to limit the approach of the grinding plates; a spring positioned between an extension of the fixed member and the chamber to tend to maintain the chamber in engagement with said adjustable Vmeans; and quick release means for engagement with the chamber and the adjustable means to move the chamber axially relative to the xed member to .cause a separation of the plates.

6. A grinding mill including a shaft; a fixed member having `a flange extending axially of the shaft; a chamber having a peripheral wall axially movable on the flange; a pair of grinding plates located within the chamber, one of the plates being driven by the shaft and the other secured to a Wall of the chamber; means for adjusting the chamber on the flange to regulate the distance between the plates comprising a nut threaded on the flange for engagement by the peripheral Wall of the chamber; spring means positioned between an extension of the fixed m5 member and the chamber to maintain the pem ripheral Wall of the chamber against the nut; quick release means for moving the 'chamber axially to cause its plate to be moved away from the other plate comprising a cam face on the peripheral wall; and a collar rotatably mounted on the said wall having one side engaging the said nut to hold the collar from axial movement and the other side provided with a cam face for co-` operation with the rst mentioned cam face to move the chamber axially and independently of its movement by the adjusting means.

7. A grinding mill including a shaft; a fixed member having a flange extending axially of the shaft; a chamber having a peripheral wall axially 13() movable on the flange; a pair of grinding plates located Within the chamber, one of the plates being driven by the shaft and the other secured to a wall ofthe chamber; means for adjustingthe chamber on the flange to regulate the oli-S- tance between the plates comprising a nut threaded on the flange for engagementbythe peripheral wall of the chamber; lugs on the chamber; studs carried by the fixed member and passed through the said lugs; and springs disposed on the studs Yfor engaging the lugs to tend to maintain the peripheral wall of the chamber against the nut.

WILBERT C. WOOD. 

